Support an end to the World Bank’s “Enabling the Business of Agriculture”

“The revelations that led to this week’s resignation of World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer point to flawed methodology and political manipulation in the World Bank’s Doing Business report. Romer admitted that the Doing Business rankings may have been manipulated to make Chile’s economic environment look worse under the sitting socialist president Michelle Bachelet.These revelations add to a long list of concerns that have been raised by civil society in recent years. The Our Land Our Business campaign was launched in 2014 to demand the end of the Bank’s Doing Business rankings. Over 280 organizations, including NGOs, unions, farmers, and consumer groups from over 80 countries have joined this call so far.”

The campaign “Our Land, Our Business” launched by the Oakland Institute in 2014, draws attention to the World Bank’s rating system that rewards the deregulation of business laws around the world. Last year, CAGJ published a blog post detailing how the World Bank’s “Enabling the Business of Agriculture” indicators affect the lives of smallholders in Africa. Read more on the Oakland Institute’s campaign to end the World Bank’s business rating systems here.

AGRA Watch is a grassroots, Seattle-based group that challenges the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s problematic agricultural development programs in Africa, including the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
In contrast, AGRA Watch supports African-initiated programs rooted in agroecological and indigenous farming practices, social equity, and food sovereignty – the right of peoples to define their own food and agriculture systems.